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What do writers and forensic scientists have in common?
Curiosity. Because the field of forensic science is changing so rapidly, curiosity and the desire to continually keep learning new things is considered an essential trait of a good forensic scientist.
It's also extremely helpful if you're a writer. At the current moment I'm researching the history behind the Human Genome Project (particularly the politics), requirements for a career as a high school science teacher, the history of the Military Tract of Central New York, and looking for first hand accounts of women police officers from the late 1970s/early 1980s, just to name a few. I need to know more about DNA analysis as well, but that's such a broad field that I need to frame my questions first before I go digging.
Resding: Just finished Forensic Casebook: The Science of Crime Scene Investigation by Ngaire E. Genge. It's a good introduction to the field for those considering a career in forensic sciences, and also appropriate for fans of mysteries and crime shows such as CSI as it includes numerous examples showing when they got the science right, and when they got it wrong. Showing how quickly the field moves, since this book was published in 2002 it's already out of date in some areas, but still worth reading.
It's also extremely helpful if you're a writer. At the current moment I'm researching the history behind the Human Genome Project (particularly the politics), requirements for a career as a high school science teacher, the history of the Military Tract of Central New York, and looking for first hand accounts of women police officers from the late 1970s/early 1980s, just to name a few. I need to know more about DNA analysis as well, but that's such a broad field that I need to frame my questions first before I go digging.
Resding: Just finished Forensic Casebook: The Science of Crime Scene Investigation by Ngaire E. Genge. It's a good introduction to the field for those considering a career in forensic sciences, and also appropriate for fans of mysteries and crime shows such as CSI as it includes numerous examples showing when they got the science right, and when they got it wrong. Showing how quickly the field moves, since this book was published in 2002 it's already out of date in some areas, but still worth reading.
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One more reason I want to rant when writers and artists talk about how they're right brained and not analytic and just can't handle that hard math and science stuff.
Scientists never do this. They tend to have interesting fiction on their shelves, to dabble in the arts, to generally be at ease with the idea that their fields of research are just one of the many things they're curious about.
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Yes, yes, yes!
And the right brain/left brain stuff doesn't even hold up under study, as I understand it.
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And these are exactly the type of people I want as my friends. When I tell people I'm going back to school this fall to take a course that may or may not be of any practical use to me, the kind of people I like to hang out with are the ones who say "Cool!"
The people who say "Why would you want to waste your time like that?" are the ones I can't fathom.
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Because, you know, that's a PRODUCTIVE use of your time.
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ROFL, yeah, productive use of time -- though maybe it is if you're studying the rudest possible comments one can make to another, in which case an American Idol/Weakest Link cocktail is called for. I'm not even sure if Weakest Link is still on.
I've never had a Simon-type character. He blows my mind really. He is completely rude and entirely self-serving, and yet seems to have built a successful career on his bad behavior. **Scratches head** Go figure. What ever happened to more flies with honey? It makes both sides of brain hurt just thinking about it.
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It must be very boring to have that attitude toward life. (Not that I didn't encounter it a lot back when I was at university, majoring in English lit ...) I mean, what fun is life if you're not learning new things?
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It's certainly true that scientists seem to be more willing to dabble in the rest of life than anyone else is to dabble in science.* I've even had articles on veterinary medicine with epigraphs from Julius Caesar.**
* But don't forget Tom Stoppard and Connie Willis.
** The epigraphs were misquoted, but you have to admire the authors for even thinking of using them.
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I was a music major in college (which seems like a century ago at this moment) and the major actually required students to attend a course called "Career Planning 101." What is this you asked? Just what it sounds like -- a course to help you figure out what you were REALLY going to do with your life. In it we took "aptitude exams" and did questionaires to find where our interests lay. We also did the stupid right brain/left brain test (coincidence there, huh?) What did it say I was most suited for? IT COULDN'T DECIDE! Basically, it said I could probably be anything my little heart desired -- completely not helpful, especially given the fact that I would never have taken it if I hadn't been forced to. Two months into the course, I was so frustrated that I talked to the professor at great length. She eventually signed me out, saying I'd tested out of it to satisfaction, so I could get my absolutely useless associates degree.
It is sad when even a trumped-up test is fickle. I joked for a long time that I was voted (by a computer) most likely to succeed at the great, ambiguous "SOMETHING".
What did it all REALLY mean? My head is filled with useless trivia on a thousand subjects that makes me very good at trival pursuit and little else. After this thread today, I think I must be incurably curious about everything.
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Yup, it was all crap.
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